Triad Power Ranking: The legislative agenda edition

We’re ranking the Triad by counties this week — for our purposes, just Guilford and Forsyth — under the metric of political influence. Juice, if you will. As everyone knows, the Republicans have been in power since 2010 and currently enjoy majorities in both houses of state government. Since then they’ve done much to consolidate their hold on government and influence the passage of laws, the subject of this week’s cover story beginning on page 20. The Forsyth County House delegation is 60 percent Republican, compared to 50 percent in Guilford County, and they’ve been working together to write legislation.

1. Guilford County

True, Guilford’s representation in the House is not as skewed toward the dominant party these days, making irrelevant much of the activity of the Democrats serving the county, who nevertheless filed lots of legislation this year. Guilford’s real power comes in the more august body of the Senate, where Trudy Wade has been plying her craft with much success and Phil Berger, whose territory creeps into the northwest corner of the county, is acting president.

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Triad City Beat exists to chronicle the North Carolina Triad cities of Winston-Salem, High Point, and Greensboro as low-cost incubators of innovation, sustainability and creativity. We publish smart reporting and writing that recognizes the intelligence of our readers.